Today, a large proportion of juice and milk is packed in packages which consist of paper-based packaging laminate. The commonest types of packages are brick-shaped packages which, int. al. are sold by Tetra Pak under the registered trade mark Tetra Brik®, and so-called gable top packages which, int. al., are sold by Tetra Pak under the trade mark Tetra Rex®.
The packaging industry is essentially constructed so that machine and material suppliers deliver filling machines and ready-printed packaging laminate to dairies which, in their plants, treat and finish the beverages and thereafter fill them into packages with the aid of the filling machine. The dairy then sells the packed beverages direct or through wholesale outlets to retailers. Finally, the consumers purchase the beverages from the retail outlets.
In this value chain, there are numerous interested parties who have long attempted to transfer information from one link to another in order to increase productivity, quality, customer service etc.
Today, for example information is transferred from the printing of the packaging laminate to the filling machine. In the printing, a guide mark in the form of a bar code or the like is printed which is employed to activate and control the filling machine. This guide mark is normally printed on the packaging laminate so that there is a guide mark on each finished package. For example, the guide mark may be employed for controlling the advancement of the filling machine so that any possible holes which are needed are punched in the correct position, so that any possible opening arrangements are placed in the correct position and so that the package is folded at the correct place. Such a guide mark and a method of reading and using the information from the guide mark are described in EP 131241 B1 and U.S. Pat. No. 6,021,950.
The latter example of ensuring that the package is folded at the correct place is one example of the transfer of information from the conversion process to the filling machine. The guide mark is printed on the laminate at a given position in relation to the crease line pattern which is also formed on the laminate in the conversion process. The filling machine can, by means of, for example, photocells, detect the guide mark and, by correctly adjusting the filling machine, it is possible to ensure that the filling machine always folds the packaging laminate into packages along the prepared folding lines in the crease pattern. This process requires that the guide mark is always placed within certain tolerances in relation to the crease line pattern. Further, it is required that the folding which the filling machine carries out take place within certain tolerances in relation to that position on the packaging laminate where the filling machine identified the guide mark.
WO 01/80146, WO 01/79988, U.S. Pat. No. 6,107,920, WO 96/41296, WO 00/16289 and WO 00/41148 all describe another type of technology for information transfer. With the aid of a so-called RFID label (radio frequency identification) it is disclosed that it is possible to trace and guide paper products within the printing industry, and also that it is possible to transfer information on trade marks, brand names, manufacturers, product numbers, quantity per package, etc. However, there is a number of factors that have hitherto restricted the employment of these RFID labels. First, it is a technical solution which, employing state of the art technology, is relatively expensive and, as a result, is difficult to make economically viable. Further, it has proved that there may be difficulties with this technology if the packages contain metals. Today, most so-called aseptic packages (which may be distributed without refrigeration) include a thin layer of aluminium foil which would have a disruptive effect on the use of RFID labels.
EP 929474 describes a packaging material which is provided with a crease line pattern for forming packages which are provided with invisible information. By employing invisible information in the form of printing ink which is visible in infra-red or ultraviolet light, the surface area of the package which may be provided with visible decorative artwork is not reduced. Information which may be supplied to the package by such means is, for example, control figures, shipment numbers, guide marks for controlling transverse sealing and subsequent folding of the package.
WO 95/00393 describes a packaging laminate with a magnetisable surface which is intended to store information relating to the packaging laminate, the information being intended for controlling the filling machine in connection with filling, sealing and folding of the packages.
WO 01/48591A1 describes a relatively recently developed technology according to which a specific pattern is created which is printed on a notepad and is read off by a camera disposed on a pen. This publication describes that this specific pattern may be varied to such an extent that the imaginary surface which, throughout its entire extent, has a unique pattern, has a size of 4,600,000 square kilometres, in order words a surface which is approximately half the size of Europe. Parts of this imaginary surface are printed on paper and linked either to a unique function, such as sending an e-mail, or to pure text recognition for entering text into a computer or other electronic equipment. For example, it is possible to print notepads adapted for writing fax messages or e-mails. The notepad is then designed so that each page has a part where the text is to be written, a part where the e-mail address is to be written and a symbol which gives the signal that the e-mail message is to be transmitted. The information which is read-off by the pen is sent, for example, via the mobile telephone network to a server which reads off the site of the imaginary surface and then executes the function which corresponds to this specific site. In order for this technology to function in the manner intended, it is thus necessary that the specifically created substrate is adapted for the application which the user intends to employ.
The technologies described above are, to some extent, associated with operational problems depending upon various factors such as the price level of the technology, disruptive metal layers in the laminate, etc. Further, a part of the technology is greatly restricted to certain sections of the above-described value chain. For example, it is difficult to utilise RFID labels for information transfer to end consumers. The shop shelf is the last interested party which in all reasonableness is provided with equipment capable of reading the RFID label, i.e. information to the consumer can be displayed in the shop or be sent together with goods as a paper copy. Thus, there is a need for further alternative solutions. It is moreover desirable that this technology be capable of being used as an information vehicle in the contact with various different interested parties in the value chain.